Research Guides: Elections, Politics, and Voting: Web Resources

US Elections, Politics and Voting

Vote Smart
Non-partisan, not-for-profit site and organization that charges itself with researching and providing information about candidate biographies, voting records, interest group ratings, public statements, campaign finances, and stance on the important issues, which is summarized in the site's "Political Courage Tests" asking the candidates what items or issues they would support if elected.
The ANES Guide to Public Opinion
The Guide provides immediate access to tables and graphs that display the ebb and flow of public opinion, electoral behavior, and choice in American politics over time. It serves as a resource for political observers, policy makers, and journalists, teachers, students, and social scientists.
electionLine
Produced by the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs as a project of the Project for Excellence in Election Administration with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts, is the nation’s only nonpartisan, non-advocacy information clearinghouse and e-newsletter providing up-to-the-minute news and analysis on election reform.
Rock the Vote
Rock the Vote's mission is to engage and build political power for young people in our country.
Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
offers the detailed national results for major and minor candidate for U.S. presidential election from 1789 to present. It contains information on candidates, parties, electoral vote total, maps, charts and more.
The American Presidency Project
One of the most comprehensive collection of web resources on the American presidency, including documents, public papers, executive orders, addresses, press conferences, debates, election data, approval ratings, much more
How the Electoral College Works
From How Stuff Works. Provides an introduction to the electoral college including the present view on the system and links to other web resources.
The Living Room Candidate
Contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952. From The Museum of the Moving Image.
Navigating the Election Process for Students & First Time Voters
A Beginners Guide to Election Rights, Rules and Regulations.

Campaign Money

Federal Election Commission Campaign Finance Data
The Federal Election Commission's Campaign Finance Data portal provides a single point of entry to campaign finance data. You'll find easy-to-navigate maps and charts that display the campaign finance data you're most interested in. You'll also find many search tools that will help you through our data sources. You can download many of these data sets to perform your own analyses.
OpenSecrets.org: Money in Politics
A great site for tracking election contributions and spending. It provides figures for top contributors, contributions by industry, political actions committees (PAC), and donors, personal finances and travel expenses of the candidates and expenditures of the candidate's campaigns. This site tracks money given by geography, interest groups, and more. It also provides news stories about the candidates, legislation they have sponsored, and a breakdown of earmarks.
Virginia Campaign Finance Reports
Find current and historical reports for candidate campaigns, state AND out-of-state political parties, PACs, and more from the Virginia Department of Elections.
Virginia Public Access Money in Virginia

Virginia Elections and Politics

Who's my Legislator?
Searchable site to determine legislator based on address. Also provides links to legislator's websites and includes email forms.
Virginia Department of Elections
Information on all aspects of voting in Virginia including election results, voter registration, and absentee voting.
Virginia Citizen's Guide
Information on the general assembly, citizen participation, lobbyist links, and more to help you understand the legislative process in Virginia.
Virginia Politics
Breaking Virginia political news and headlines from the Washington Post.
League of Women Voters of Virginia
Virginia's chapter of the League of Women Voters
VPAP - Virginia Public Access Project
From their site: "We connect you with nonpartisan information about Virginia politics. We have no dog in any fight. We're a nonprofit dedicated to providing facts that help you reach your own conclusions."

Party Websites

International Elections

The Carter Center - International Election Reports
In-depth pre and post election reports by country.
IFES Election Guide
Democracy assistance & elections news from the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS)

Non-Partisan Coverage & Fact Checking

Vote Smart
Non-partisan, not-for-profit site and organization that charges itself with researching and providing information about candidate biographies, voting records, interest group ratings, public statements, campaign finances, and stance on the important issues, which is summarized in the site's "Political Courage Tests" asking the candidates what items or issues they would support if elected.
FactCheck.org
Nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. Monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
FlackCheck.org
A sister to FactCheck.org that "provides resources designed to help viewers recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular. Video resources point out deception and incivility in political rhetoric."
Sabato's Crystal Ball
Comprehensive, nonpartisan political analysis and handicapping newsletter run by the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
PolitiFact.com
PolitiFact is a project run by the Poynter Institute to help you find the truth in American politics. Journalists fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups.
USAFacts
Our nation, in numbers. USAFacts provides a comprehensive, nonpartisan view of the state of our union.
more...less...
USAFacts is a new data-driven portrait of the American population, our government’s finances, and government’s impact on society. We are a non-partisan, not-for-profit civic initiative and have no political agenda or commercial motive. We provide this information as a free public service and are committed to maintaining and expanding it in the future.

We rely exclusively on publicly available government data sources. We don’t make judgments or prescribe specific policies. Whether government money is spent wisely or not, whether our quality of life is improving or getting worse – that’s for you to decide. We hope to spur serious, reasoned, and informed debate on the purpose and functions of government. Such debate is vital to our democracy. We hope that USAFacts will make a modest contribution toward building consensus and finding solutions.
US Elections Project
The United States Elections Project disseminates research and projects led by Michael McDonald, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida.

Political News

TheHill.com
Since its launch in 1994, The Hill has been the newspaper for and about Congress, breaking stories from Capitol Hill, K Street and the White House. The Hill delivers reporting on the inner workings of Congress and the nexus of politics and business.
Politics : NPR
Political news from NPR. Read articles or listen to stories.